1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to stands for supporting skis and snowboards while either is being tuned. More specifically, this invention is a stand which holds skis and snowboards horizontal during base preparation and upright during side edge servicing.
2. Prior Art
Skis and snowboards are tuned regularly by many users, which includes sharpening the metal edges and preparing the plastic base for better glide over snow. Holding a ski during the tuning process has become more difficult in the past few years because of performance enhancing changes. Most skis now have angled side walls and uneven top surfaces. Snowboarding has also become a common winter pastime at mountain resorts. The typical ski holding vises developed in the 1970s and 1980s have been rendered nearly obsolete because of these changes in ski design and the popularization of snowboarding.
New vises and other holding systems have recently been introduced. Most of the new systems clamp onto a work table using mechanical clamps and use other clamps to hold a ski or snowboard in place. These mechanical clamping systems are generally expensive, cumbersome, and not very versatile. Recent innovations have included suction cups as described in Lassley's patent (5,893,550).
Suction cups as described in Lassley's patent have difficulty keeping a vacuum unless they are pressed onto a very smooth and clean surface, conditions which are uncommon around ski and snowboard tuning areas. For base preparation, the top surface of a ski or snowboard is pressed onto upper suction cups of the Lassley's stand. The top surface of the ski or snowboard contacting the suction pad can not have any sizable scratches, any irregularities, and must be flat or the vacuum within the cup will be lost. As mentioned earlier, ski tops are typically no longer flat. Armantrout's patent (4,669,713) describes friction pads instead of suction cups on a rather large, non-portable, heavy, and fixed frame jig for supporting skis while they are resting horizontally for base preparation.
Lassley's and Armantrout's patents both incorporate a fixed vertical slot in an attempt to hold a ski in an upright position for sharpening of the side of the metal edge of a ski. Lassley also attempts to uprightly support snowboards as well as skis.
Because snowboards are three times as wide as skis, it is difficult to provide a slot which firmly holds a snowboard upright and is not so deep as to hinder the side edge filing of a ski placed upright in the same vertical slot. Another area of concern is the large difference in ski and snowboard thickness. Skis become much thicker at their midsection while snowboards change very little, if at all, from one end to the other. Therefore, fixed width slots within ski and snowboard holding fixtures do not adequately hold skis and snowboards upright for convenient side edge servicing.
As snowboarding has become popular and skis have changed shape dramatically there is a need for a ski and snowboard stand which can rest on different types of surfaces such as tables and carpeting, is readily portable, inexpensive, and can easily hold both skis and snowboards horizontal and upright during the tuning process.